It is reported that the last
Messenger of ALLAH (peace be upon him) said: "By
The One in whose hand rests my soul, you must surely
enjoin the good and forbid the evil, otherwise it is
expected that ALLAH will send against you a punishment
from Him, and you will supplicate Him but your
supplication will not be answered."

Last Sunday The Peace Thru
Justice Foundation organized a very important event
(at significant expense for our modest budget) at The
Carnegie Library in Washington, DC. Why? To make it
easy for some of America's most prominent Muslim
leaders – who were gathered in the nation's capitol
for the annual Islamic Society of North America
convention - to be educated, and hopefully
conscientized, on what arguably ranks as the most
tragic and precedent-setting case involving a
victimized Muslim, Post-9/11; the case of Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui!

On the Friday and Saturday before
the event was held, I personally handed a flyer on the
event to Nihad Awad (executive director of
CAIR-Natl.); Imam Mohamad Magid (president of
ISNA); Dr. Zahid Bukhari (president of ICNA);
to one or more ranking members of the Muslim American
Society (MAS) and Muslim Students Association (MSA);
and to a number of other high profile leaders in the
Muslim-American community. Neither Awad, Magid, or
Bukhari bothered to show up, nor did they deem it
necessary to send anyone to represent their respective
organizations. As far as I know MAS and MSA were
no-shows as well.

Of the nationally known imams who
received notice, only Imam Mohammad al-Asi
considered the event important enough for him to be
present, and to speak a word in defense of our sister!
Imam Abdullah Faaruuq of the Mosque for the
Praising of ALLAH (Roxbury, MA) would have been
present were it not for a health-related issue (may
ALLAH cure him), and so he sent a statement instead
(see below).

Of the roughly 100 plus persons
who were seated in The Carnegie Library auditorium at
the height of the four hour program, one notable,
Abdul Malik Mujahid ("Sound Vision," Chicago, IL.)
emotionally lamented the fact that a highly respected
figure in the U.S. establishment – such as former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark – had to speak in
a small auditorium in a building across the street
from where a national convention was taking place.

The real crying shame,
however, was that Professor Clark could travel all the
way to Pakistan in defense of an oppressed Muslim
woman, but her own prominent brethren in the fold of
Islam could not travel across the street! It is
also a crying shame that a program on Dr.
Aafia Siddiqui – one of the most gifted,
committedand abused young Muslims to ever
grace America's shores as a visiting immigrant – had
to be held across the street from a nationally
organized Muslim convention, in the very capitol of
the country that has her wrongfully and brutally
imprisoned!

The purpose of this open letter
is to publicly appeal to the individual and
collective conscience of America's Muslim
establishment. Unless and until we begin doing the
things that we are commanded to do by ALLAH and His
Messenger (i.e. "Stand firmly for justice as
witnesses to ALLAH even if it be against yourselves…"
– Al'Qur'an) we will never get the respect that
so many of us crave. Until we learn how to STAND UP as
men we will forever be burdened by the mental chains
of neo-colonialism and psychological slavery. Until we
begin defending our women, our children, and our
communities we will forever confine ourselves
to the dungeons of fear and spiritual stagnation!

What YOU Can Do

The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is
a litmus test for Muslims in America - esp. for
Muslim "leadership." If we collectively fail to rise
to the challenge of Aafia's unjust imprisonment (under
blatant unconstitutional conditions) the growing
number of preemptively prosecuted young Muslim
males do not stand a snowballs chance in hell of
getting relief. We must understand this reality
and respond accordingly.

From this point on, for as long
as Aafia is imprisoned in America, every Muslim
conference convened in the U.S. should have a segment
dedicated to the plight of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (and the
campaign for her release) in one of its main
sessions. MSA National should send out a directive
urging all of its chapters to organize forums on
campuses around the country geared toward educating
the public (esp. fellow students) on who she is.
(For the record,
Aafia Siddiqui was a valued student leader of the MSA
at both MIT and Brandeis; that should count for
something!)

To any local MSA leaders who
read this message, if your national leadership is too
apathetic or intimidated to respond to this challenge,
you should respond on a local and regional
level.

The national organizations that
have masajid and centers connected to them throughout
the country (such as ISNA, ICNA and MAS) should
encourage these centers to at least talk about the
case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, and do whatever else they
can to help mobilize material support for her. If
large centers can roll out the red carpet for
occasional visits from representatives of the FBI, the
US Military, or local and state politicians - or to local bigots who
attempt to exercise a kind of veto power over the
center via their occasional visits – than
these centers should be willing to welcome the
occasional visit of a defender of a fellow Muslim!

Organizations and individual
leaders with ties to the political establishment
should be putting "friendly politicians" on point
regarding this sister's plight. It is a shame that not
even the two Muslim congressmen on Capitol Hill
(Ellison and Carson) have raised the issue of Dr.
Aafia Siddiqui in their high profile representation of
Muslims in America.

Nationally renowned men [and
women] of knowledge should also be raising the issue
of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (and other political
prisoners/prisoners of war) with their students, while
conveying the message that responding to the plight of
such persons is as binding upon the truly committed
Muslim as are the five salat! Shu'yuuk who ignore this
responsibility relegate themselves to the status of
being nothing more than celebrity sheikhs
– who TALK much, but are of very little relevance on
the major issues of the day!

While I could say more, I think
I've said enough. May ALLAH fortify, purify and
preserve us in the never ending struggles ahead. Ameen.

Your brother in the fold of
Islam,

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

Director of Operations

The Peace Thru Justice
Foundation

"Indeed from my Ummah there are a
folk who will receive rewards equivalent to the
rewards of the early ones [my companions] because they
forbid the evil." – Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

-----------------------------

In the Name of Allah: The Most
Gracious, the Most Merciful

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Who Is She?

By Imam Abdullah Faaruuq & Sister
Sufia Hassan

If we are going to give support
to this woman Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, we need to ask
ourselves, ‘Who is she and what did she do?' We know
the answer is going to vary depending upon whom we
ask. If we ask those who know her -- her friends,
associates, family, those who lived, studied or worked
with her - they would attest to her good character,
concern for others, and truthfulness. However, if we
ask those who never knew her, but only heard through
the media via government officials, they would say she
is an evil woman, an attempted murderer bent on
destroying America—a terrorist. We are told in
Islam to ask those who know—I am one who knew her
personally.

By virtue of her behavior and
speech, nothing could be further from the truth than
those lies used to turn public opinion against her. I
can tell you how she spent her time. I witnessed her
raising money for clothing and food for the displaced
Bosnians fleeing from Serbian oppression. I worked
with her as she raised money to purchase and
distribute Islamic literature. Those efforts reached
the forgotten inmates seeking knowledge of the truth
about Islam, while incarcerated in so-called
correctional institutions. Her resources also made
their way to university students in MSAs providing
them literature to promote their spiritual growth,
while they continued to pursue their secular
endeavors. But her efforts did not stop there, she
sent much needed Qurans and other literature to
various Mosques to help promote Islam as a complete
way of life.

I listened to her deliver
inspiring speeches that motivated both men and women
to get involved with issues that concerned humanity as
a whole and Muslims in particular. Such speeches were
given during the Bosnian War. After hearing this young
dynamic woman speak, no one could continue to be a
by-stander in good conscience. Reading about our
Muslim Brothers being killed and Muslim Sisters being
raped, while the world looked on was not an option.
She encouraged doctors to go and donate their
services, and sisters to give money to support that
effort. Money for food and clothing was collected to
help the Bosnian refugees. She also gave speeches that
encouraged Muslim women to not be afraid to cover as
Allah commanded, or practice their religion openly in
this land of the free and home of the brave. Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui's speeches always motivated people towards
noble and righteous causes that any sound minded
American would support.

I witnessed her as a mother truly
concerned for her children. They were well groomed and
cared for. I ate delicious food cooked with her own
hands and enjoyed her company and wit. She was a
Muslim woman who was not afraid to champion the cause
of oppressed people, her people who happened to be
Muslims. This is the Aafia Siddiqui that I know.

If we listen to those who never
knew her and have political agendas, we would be lead
to believe that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui must have committed
some heinous crime for authorities to abduct her in
her own homeland, transport her across the border,
have her missing for five years, release and re-arrest
her, shoot and wound her, then charge her with
unsubstantiated accusations of assaulting an FBI agent
with his own weapon in an attempt to kill him. We
would also be lead to believe that while she and her
children were missing for five years, that she ran
away and actively participated in some Al Qaeda
operations which never manifested and for which she
was never charged. If the US government is unable to
charge her with any crimes of terrorism, than why did
they chase her around the world and subject her to all
forms of torture.

We would be lead to believe that
this graduate of MIT and Brandeis University would be
willing to sacrifice her life and the lives of her
children for an impractical cause. We would have to
ignore the fact that there was no forensic evidence
that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui ever touched an assault weapon
(none of her finger prints were on any of the
weapons). We would have to ignore the evidence
presented in court that not one bullet from the
automatic weapon authorities claimed that she fired
was found among the barrage of bullets in the space in
which she was contained. We would also have to ignore
the fact that she was the only one shot and nearly
killed.

For me Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a
political prisoner being held unjustly in a maximum
security prison for showing concern for Muslims here
and abroad. The question still remains, who is Dr
Aafia Siddiqui to you?